Mixed Signals
by DizzyAlice
Summary: Stan discovers he has developed feelings more than friendship towards Kyle. However, when his friend begins sending him mixed signals, Stan has trouble figuring out Kyle's true feelings. STyle oneshot.


A/N: A STyle one-shot, revolving mostly around Stan and his one-sided feelings for Kyle. I'm not sure exactly how old they're supposed to be in this, probably early teens, you can decide for yourselves. But it is supposed to take place over the span of a few years.  
So yeah. I hope you enjoy, and reviews make me a happy biscuit. =)

I, of course, do not own South Park or any related characters, for that right goes to Matt&Trey.

* * *

What was a boy to do when he accidentally fell in love with his best friend?

Well, maybe not love. Having never experienced the emotion himself, Stan thought love was too strong a word. But what he did know was that what he felt for Kyle was much more than friendship.

However, Stan's crush was painfully unrequited. The sad fact was, Kyle had a girlfriend.

He was dating a girl named Rebecca, known by most as "Red." Red was a nice girl, and pretty, and fairly smart, so Stan supposed he could see why his best friend had asked her out, but it was still hard watching them flirt and kiss all the time.

"Dude, stop ogling Kyle," Kenny said.

"God, you're such a fag," Cartman said.

But Stan ignored them. He had eyes only for Kyle. In his opinion, there was nothing not to like about Kyle. His excited green eyes, his soft red curls, his dazzling smile, even his fiery temper. Stan was gone the minute his hormones had kicked in.

Stan groaned and turned to Kenny as Red seductively leaned in to lick a bit of vanilla frosting from the cupcake she had made for her boyfriend off his lip.

"What should I do?" he whispered in a pained voice.

Kenny smiled sympathetically. "Not much you can do. Either wait and hope, or move on and make out with me instead."

Stan rolled his eyes and punched Kenny in the arm. "You wish, perv."

"You're right, I do wish," he replied, grinning and rubbing the sore spot on his arm.

Stan opted for choice two, minus the making out with Kenny part. He tried his damndest to get over Kyle. He looked at other girls. He even looked at other guys. But no one sparked his interest like the short, shy Jewish boy.

One day, Kyle showed up to lunch alone. A tiny spark of hope was re-ignited within Stan.

"Where's Red?" he asked immediately.

Kyle shrugged, taking his usual seat next to his best friend. "We broke up," he announced nonchalantly.

"Sweet! Rebound!" Kenny exclaimed. Everyone ignored him.

"Are you okay?" Stan asked in a concerned voice, trying extremely hard to hide his soaring happiness.

Kyle shrugged again, opening his mouth to respond verbally, but was cut off by Cartman.

"What happen, Jew-boy, she get sick of looking at your fugly face?" the obese teen grunted, still shoveling food into his mouth.

Kyle's green eyes narrowed in anger. "Fuck off, fatass. _No_, that's not what happened." He sighed, his expression softening. "We just kind of decided our relationship wasn't really going anywhere. It was a mutual thing, really."

It was silent at the table for a few moments before Kyle suddenly turned to Stan.

"Hey, you wanna hang out today? I feel like I haven't seen you in ages," he said.

This was true. They had gotten almost no one-on-one time since Kyle and Red had started dating. She would always inexplicably call or show up at the most inopportune times.

Stan felt Kenny kicking him under the table. Annoyed, he turned to his friend, only to discover that the orange parka'd boy was grinning and giving him a thumbs-up. Stan rolled his eyes, but couldn't help smiling as well.

"Sure," he said in response to Kyle's previous question.

Stan wasn't sure exactly when he started coming onto Kyle. It might've been that very day. He didn't even notice he was doing it at first. But then he started catching himself laughing at everything his best friend said, even when it wasn't that funny; constantly shooting off flirtatious remarks in Kyle's direction; frequently invading the other boy's personal space, sitting much too close to him and using any excuse to touch him.

Kyle didn't seem to have any objections. Maybe he was truly so oblivious he didn't notice all this was happening. Everyone else seemed to. But no, Kyle never reacted when Stan made his advances.

There were a few times that Kyle actually seemed to be receptive to Stan's flirting, even.

"If only I were as smart as you I wouldn't have C's in half my classes," Stan would say.

"You're perfectly smart, you just don't apply yourself," Kyle would retaliate.

"I'm so jealous of your eyes, they're so fucking pretty. Like grass or something."

"If mine are grass, yours are the sky. Or water. Pretty, clear blue water."

"Your hair is too nice for its own good. Not only is it an amazing color, you've got the best curls around." Stan reached out absently to play with one of the auburn locks.

"Yeah, well, I wish you wouldn't hide yours under that goddamn hat all the time. I happen to like your hair, thank you very much." He grinned and playfully tugged Stan's beanie off his head, running his fingers through the inky black hair.

There were times Stan didn't even initiate the flirting.

"You should smile more. It suits you."

"I like that shirt, it brings out your eyes."

"That mix you made me was abso-fucking-lutely amazing. You've got the best taste in music."

And so on. Every single time, without fail, when Kyle would say one of these things, Stan's face would head up, he'd look away, and ask with a shy smile, "You really think so?"

Stan's minor likings developed quickly into an all-out, heavy duty crush. The only ones who actually knew for sure were Kenny and Cartman, and that was only because Kenny had figured it out a long time ago, and Cartman had overheard them talking about it once. Kenny helped him through it like a good friend, while Cartman used it as yet another excuse to rip on Stan.

The thing that bothered Stan most was when Cartman brought it up in front of Kyle. Once again, however, the Jewish boy didn't appear to care much.

"Hey, you wanna go to the movies tonight?" Kyle asked Stan.

"What, so you two can make out in the back of the theater?" Cartman sneered.

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Yes, Cartman, that's _exactly_ what we were planning on doing," he replied sarcastically.

Stan's eyes darted around as he became increasingly more anxious.

Cartman scoffed. "Stan only wishes you would make out with him."

"Who says I wouldn't?" Kyle asked with a seductive smirk, leaning dangerously close to his best friend. Stan's eyes grew wide in shock, his mouth slightly open. They stayed like this for a moment before Kyle pulled away, laughing at Stan's panicked expression. "Chill, dude, I was just kidding."

Stan sighed, not sure if it was with relief or with sadness. Both, probably. "I know that," he said quietly.

Kyle gave the dark-haired boy a strange look, but didn't say anything more.

It was that very night that Kyle confronted Stan, causing one of his worst fears to be confirmed.

The night started out innocently enough. The boys went to the movies as planned, then back to Kyle's house to hang out and play video games for a while.

"Why are you so good at this?" Stan asked as he watched his character get killed by Kyle's yet again.

"Do you like me?" Kyle blurted by way of response.

Stan's heart momentarily stopped beating. "Of course I like you, dude. You're my best friend."

Kyle frowned, his face growing slightly red. "But it's more than that… isn't it? Lately you've been acting different towards me. Like being friends isn't enough anymore."

Stan bit his lip, looking away. That was all the response Kyle needed.

"Jesus Christ," he muttered. "How long?"

"What?"

"How long have you liked me?" Kyle demanded again.

Stan sighed. "I don't know. A while. I think around when you started dating Red, and I got so fucking jealous…" he trailed off at the look on his best friend's face. "Sorry," he said, squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose.

Kyle reached out and gently removed the black-haired boy's hand from his face before retracting his own hand. "You don't have to apologize," he said softly.

"Don't you hate me?" Stan asked, confused.

"Of course not. You're my best friend, idiot." He grinned, but the smile was superfluous. "I know you can't help how you feel. And while I'm flattered that you like me, you understand that I still only want to be friends, right?"

"Super best friends," Stan mumbled. "Nothing more, nothing less."

Kyle smiled reassuringly. "Exactly. Just like always."

But they both knew things would be different now. What with Stan's one-sided affection, some guidelines would have to be put into place. They basically decided that, given the situation, whenever things got awkward they would immediately address it and attempt to fix the issue.

"I think I might ask Heidi out," Kyle mentioned while waiting for the bus one morning.

"_Damn_, she's a hot piece of A," Kenny said, to which Kyle made a face. Kenny chuckled. "Go for it, dude."

Kyle turned to Stan to ask his opinion. The taller boy was staring at the ground, a pained look on his face. Kyle smacked his forehead with his palm.

"Stan, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot. God, I need to think more before I talk," the redhead groaned.

Stan took a deep breath, plastering on a fake smile. "No, don't worry about it. Kenny's right, you should go for it," he replied in a weak voice.

Kyle gave a nervous, apologetic smile, avoiding his friend's sad blue eyes. He never did end up asking Heidi out.

Alternately, on another occasion, the two friends were discussing weekend plans in the middle of class.

"I think we should go out somewhere. We haven't gone anywhere in ages," Stan was saying. He subconsciously moved closer to Kyle while he was talking, placing a hand on Kyle's thigh.

Kyle glanced down at the hand, then back up at his friend, who was still chattering on obliviously.

"–was thinking we could go to Shakey's, we haven't been there in forever–"

"Stan…" Kyle interrupted, his face heating up with embarrassment.

"–best pizza around, I miss it, really–"

"Stan."

"–not very expensive, which is good since I'm almost as poor as Kenny right now–"

"STAN."

The boy in question finally shut up, gazing curiously at his friend.

"Will you kindly remove your hand from my leg?" Kyle asked slowly, trying to keep his infamous anger in check.

"Oh," Stan said softly, pulling his hand back as though he had been burned. His face turned bright red. "Sorry, dude."

"It's okay. Don't worry about it." Kyle gave an uncomfortable smile.

"What's wrong, Jew, you don't want your hippie boyfriend groping you in the middle of class?" Cartman grunted from the seat in front of Kyle.

"He's– we're– I'm–" Stan sputtered, frustrated at his inability to form a full sentence.

Kyle's face instantly turned a color that easily competed with his curly hair. "We're _not_ boyfriends, you fucking fatass!" he yelled.

"Sure, fags. Whatever you wanna tell yourselves."

Stan sighed sadly as Kyle seethed, muttering about how much of a fucking douche Cartman was.

It went similarly for a while. Eventually Kyle seemed to grow more accustomed to Stan's feelings for him, and stopped talking about dating in front of his friend. Similarly, Stan, through many gentle reminders, was able to keep his space. The two boys were able to go on with life almost normally.

They still hung out almost every day, especially on weekends. Sometimes Kenny and Cartman came along too, but usually they were alone. It was one such Saturday that _it_ happened.

The pair were at Stan's house, staying up late to watch a horror movie. Kyle loved horror movies. He thought they were cheesy and laughed at everything that was supposed to be scary. Stan hated horror movies. They freaked him out. He usually spent the majority of the films perched on the edge of his seat, eyes wide, chomping nervously on his fingernails and flinching every five seconds. His friends called him a pussy for this, but he couldn't help it.

As Stan went through this endeavor, eyes glued to the screen, he got that strange sensation of being watched. Turning to the only other person in the room, he found a set of green eyes that were indeed staring at him.

"What?" he asked Kyle, suddenly self-conscious.

Kyle chuckled. "Sorry. You just look really cute when you're all freaked out like that."

"W-what?" Stan stammered again, taken aback by Kyle's comment.

"You heard me," Kyle replied, grinning deviously as he leaned towards Stan. His weird behavior was freaking Stan out, and he scrambled away from his friend, to the other end of the couch.

"Kyle?" he asked quietly, sure that his best friend was just trying to fuck with his mind or something. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I thought you liked me," Kyle said, his grin changing to a pout.

"Fuck, dude, you know I do," Stan murmured gently, frowning. "You also know I like you way too much for my own good. Why are you doing this?"

By way of response, Kyle made another lunge toward Stan, who got up off the couch just in time.

"Are you on drugs, Ky?" he inquired, his voice growing a bit high-pitched the more freaked out he got about Kyle's odd behavior.

Kyle laughed, getting to his feet as well, taking a slow step towards his friend. Stan took a step back to keep an equal distance between them.

"You, Stanley Marsh, must truly be the most oblivious person on the face of the earth," Kyle said, still moving toward Stan, who continued to move backwards.

"And what, exactly, is it that I'm being oblivious to?" Stan asked slowly. He felt his back hit the wall behind him. Shit.

Kyle grinned, continuing to move forward. He placed a hand against the wall on either side of Stan's head, pressing his chest to his friend's.

"This," Kyle whispered, finally reaching up to capture his taller friend's mouth with his own.

A previously wary Stan melted immediately into the kiss, pressing in to deepen it. He brought a hand up to rest on Kyle's cheek, placing the other on his friend's waist. He parted his lips to allow the other boy entry, sighing happily.

The two stayed like that for a while, separating for a few short gasps of breath before quickly reattaching. Eventually, Kyle was the first to break it off, slowly pulling away for good.

They wore twin grins, their faint blushes evident in the bluish light emanating from the television where the horror film still played.

Stan inconspicuously pinched himself. It hurt. _It hurt_. He grinned even wider, so much that his face hurt as well. It wasn't just a dream.

"So what does this mean?" he breathlessly asked Kyle.

"It means I'm in like with you, dumbass."

Stan arched an eyebrow. "You're in like with me?" he parroted.

Kyle laughed. "Yeah. …So I suppose I should ask, even though I already kind of know the answer… Stan Marsh, will you go out with me?"

Stan's heart leapt at the prospect. "Of course I will," he replied, a smile playing across his lips. "So I guess this means we really are boyfriends now?"

"Boyfriends," Kyle mused. "I like the sound of that." He grinned and leaned in to kiss Stan again, but Stan interrupted.

"Kyle?"

"Mhm?" his eyes were closed, lips only inches away from his new boyfriend's.

"…Why were you acting like such a creep earlier? You could've been just like, ''Ey. I like you. Make out with me.' and I would've gladly obliged."

Kyle chuckled softly. "Like I said, you're really cute when you get all freaked out like that."

**The End.**


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